The National keeps pushing boundaries

By Josh Bell January 12, 2018

It’s rare these days that any major musical act skips over Las Vegas entirely, but when The National plays at The Joint this week, it’ll be the first time the acclaimed indie rock band has headlined a concert in town. And on the lists of important acts who’ve stayed away from Vegas, The National is one of the most anticipated, with albums that regularly land Grammy nominations and positions on critics’ best-of lists. The band’s 2017 album Sleep Well Beast continues that trend; it’s up for two Grammy awards this year, and Rolling Stone called it “The National’s best LP yet.”.

But it doesn’t stop there. The band members are the subjects of the cult-favorite 2013 documentary Mistaken for Strangers. They’ve recorded songs for HBO series Game of Thrones and Boardwalk Empire. They created a 2016 Grateful Dead charity tribute album featuring 60-plus artists. They once performed their song “Sorrow” over and over for six hours straight as part of an art installation. They’re always pushing boundaries and creating new sounds, and audiences in Vegas will finally get to experience that in person.